WGI adds SUPER Trucks to IndyCar weekend

Verizon IndyCar Series driver Alexander Rossi, last year's Indy 500 winner, talked Sunday about his feelings for the road course. He is attending the I Love New York 355 at The Glen as a special guest.
Andrew Legare / Staff Video

Watkins Glen International's IndyCar Grand Prix weekend will have a bit more to offer fans after Thursday's announcement the SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks Series will make its first appearance at the road course.

The race weekend, set for Sept. 1-3, will now include six motorsports classes, led by the featured Verizon IndyCar Series event. Other series competing will be Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, USF2000 and MX-5 Cup.

Over the three days there will seven qualifying sessions and nine races, with the IndyCar event getting started at 1 p.m. Sept. 3 and televised live on NBCSN. SUPER Trucks races will be held at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 2 and at 12:10 p.m. Sept. 3, with practice and qualifying Sept. 1.

The SUPER Trucks Series features identically prepared, high-horsepower trucks. They are made to resemble Traxxas radio control cars. The series was formed in 2013 by Robby Gordon, a former IndyCar and NASCAR driver who won the Cup Series race at Watkins Glen in 2003.

Among the calling cards of the series is the trucks' ability to race on just about any surface. Its 2017 schedule includes co-events with IndyCar in the United States, Supercars in Australia and Monster Jam in China.

"If there is anything that can add even more excitement to our IndyCar Grand Prix at the Glen race weekend, it's Robby Gordon and his series," WGI President Michael Printup said in a press release.

"This is going to be unlike anything that our fans have ever seen at Watkins Glen International. I'm very curious to see how those trucks get around America's fastest road course."

Drivers race in the SPEED Energy Stadium Super Trucks Series as a support event to the V8 Supercars Clipsal 500 at Adelaide Street Circuit on February 27, 2015 in Adelaide, Australia.(Photo11: Morne de Klerk / Getty Images)

The trucks will race on the 2.45-mile, eight-turn short course at Watkins Glen instead of the 3.37-mile Grand Prix circuit used by IndyCar.

In addition, the races will feature 36-inch tall aluminum ramps throughout the course, with trucks flying up to 20 feet off the ground and hundreds of feet down the course at speeds upwards of 140 miles per hour, according to the press release.

"For Stadium SUPER Trucks to visit the state of New York and the Northeast for the first time, I cannot be more excited," Gordon said in the press release. "I've had a lot of success at Watkins Glen throughout my career and have built a large fan base in that region. To bring the door-to-door action and big air of Stadium SUPER Trucks to 'The Glen' for the first time, the fans are going to be ecstatic for SST racing."